Notes: 

Malcolm “Max” Crosby age 85 (born 1893) and Horace M. Crosby Jr. age 71 (born 1899), interview with Tales of Cape Cod, June 13, 1978 in Osterville, MA.  The brothers recall how their great grandfather Andrew came from England in the 1850’s had started the Crosby boat building business which produced the famous Crosby Catboat.   The story behind the creation of the first 14 foot Catboat includes Andrew dying before the boat was completed and his wife who was a medium, telling her sons that she had talked to their dead father and relayed what they needed to do to complete the boat.  Max’s and Horace worked with their grandfather and father to produced many boats for affluent individuals in the Osterville area.  The Wianno Senior and Junior were designed by their father Horace Manley Crosby.  They recall making boats for the Joseph Kennedy family, and Alexander Smith of Great Island.  Other highlights include the installation of electricity in 1922, prohibition, how the hurricane of 1944 affected the boat yard.  

Interview by Betty Richards

Notes:  

The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection is located at the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts.

For more information about the Collection, please contact the Nickerson Archives at http://www.nickersonarchives.org/.